Catch up

Playing a little catch up, but not too much to share as I was away the weekend.

My ribbon finally came in the mail from the Essex County Hunter Pace.  Woohoo!

 

I had a friend ride Liam while I was away for the weekend in order to attend the Bucks County Hunter Pace on Monday, Memorial Day.

We arrived at the pace and signed in.  It was a beautiful day!

Liam seemed calm.  I shipped Liam down to the pace with my friends pony mare and we were meeting another friend to ride out in a group of 3.  Well, Liam got off the trailer ok, but as I was tacking him up, he became more and more anxious.  I don't know what is up with him lately.  Same thing happened at the horse show.  At one point I reprimanded him, not bad, just gave him a pull on the lead and this led to rearing.  I know better then to really reprimand him, he is very sensitive. 

Got him settled a little, but not really, and hopped on.  He was very protective over the pony mare.  He didn't want my friends gelding to get close to her at all.  We jigged all the way to the start and my friends thought it was best if I went into the ring for a little bit.  I headed to the ring and trotted like 2 circles and said lets just go and I will deal with him out on the trial.  I knew he wasn't going to settle down quickly and I didn't want to make him too tired before the 9 mile hunter pace.

We started out in the pace just walking for a bit and then did some trotting.  My friend's gelding was getting anxious in the back as Liam was leading, so I let her lead for a little bit.  Liam was anxious, but ok with not being out front.  Never did anything bad.  Then my friends gelding got tired and Liam led some more.   He did settle a bit on the pace.  At one point I had a lose rein walking and trotting.  When we started getting closer to the finish he was settled but not quite relaxed.  The finish went trough the course county course and some people were out there schooling, but we made it to the end.  The last mile was practically torture.  My legs were tired of being in the stirrups and throbbing.  We headed out to the cross county field and walked around a bit after we were all done with the pace.  I should have just called it quits at the end of the pace, but I just followed everyone else and Liam became nervous again.  I should just trust my gut.  We walked the corn field and headed back to the trailers.

All in all, Liam didn't do anything super bad.  Just jigged a bit and felt tucked up in a ball, but we finished and I didn't fall off!  That is all that matters.  Sorry I didn't get really any pictures!  I didn't feel like I could take my hand off the reins to snap a shot.